Category: Charity

Well, that’s it, we’re all done for 2019’s £1-a-day Challenge raising money for the Salvation Army. David, Helen and I managed to survive for seven days, living on a £1 a day each, for all our food and drink. It’s not too late to donate – see later in this Post.

Helen, David and yours truly

It’s now 6am on the 14th (the day after this year’s campaign ended) and as I write this Post, the donations stand at an impressive £655 (plus £111.25 Gift Aid). Even when you take away JG’s commission (1.9% + 20p/5% on Gift Aid) it’s none too shabby!

THANK YOU to all of you who donated; we know there is a lot of demand on your purses and wallets for who you give your hard-earned money to, and we really appreciate every pound of your generosity! 👍 👍 👍

As usual, we’re leaving the website open for a short spell (until Saturday, 5th October) in case you missed all the action as it happened. So, if you haven’t yet done so, and feel inclined to donate, you’re not too late. Please use the link below…

…and on top of the money raised, we even had a few coins left over from our enforced £21! I know it sounds impossible doesn’t it..? three people… three meals a day… for seven days! so here is a reminder of how we spent it. There’s posh! we even had fresh-fruit for the first year ever (they were reduced in price) and some Titan Bars – Aldi’s equivalent of Mars Bars – for the occasional motivation!

Our £21 spent wisely!

Another first for us in 2019! Although we had some cash left over, we completely ran out of food (we ate our last few biscuits yesterday evening!) – for me, that’s a perfect end to this year’s efforts. Some foody highlights follow…

Talking of losses, even though it wasn’t my prime intention, I even managed to shed a few pounds too! – and that was a pleasant surprise, as our menus certainly would never have made it to Weight-Watchers or Slimming World! I started off at 13st 13lbs exactly on Day 1, and by the last day I’d dropped to 13st 10lbs!

Thanks again everyone – you’ve been super-generous. Now it’s back to the more nutritious stuff! 😉

This year, we also have new recruit ‘Helen’ joining us in lieu of her hubby Paul, (who’s taking the easy way out 😁 and making plans to trek across Cambodia raising money for the Salvation Army!)

…I think I’d rather trek across a supermarket! 😉

Why do this? Well, it’s great way for me to lose a bit of weight and also to get involved in a good cause. This is now our SIXTH year, and in previous years, we appear to have inspired others to get involved their own ‘£1-a-day’ for other causes – and that’s very rewarding in itself! Last year, we set a target of £1500 – and you helped us smash that by donating £2000. Thank you!! For 2019, we are again supporting the Salvation Army and we’ve upped the target, attempting to raise £2000. We’ve set up a donations page to make it a more a meaningful event (see below).

We did the shopping at Aldi and Morrison’s a few days ago, and we noticed that in many cases food prices had gone down a little – that was a pleasant surprise, and it did mean we could squeeze in some fresh fruit this year (first time ever – hello Mr Nectarine!) and some treats, to keep us motivated 😯

In many cases, cheaper than in 2018 – £16.37 spent to-date (click for a larger version)

As you can see, we haven’t spent ALL our budget yet – just £16.37. There’s a few more bits to get – we need to pick up some pasta, some chilli sauce, possibly some more mushrooms and more rice – but DEFINITELY some small motivational treats for in-between meals. All-in-all though, we’re pleased that prices, in many cases, seem to have gone down. 😁

The challenges each year, when buying the food for this event are numerous. Most significantly, ‘Variety’ is a big problem – and as a result, that makes the menu at best, ‘slightly boring‘. We’ve tried every-which-way to make it more exciting, but after six years at this, we just have to accept the repetition and lack of creativity – Masterchef this isn’t!

One of the other challenges is attempting to buy some of the ingredients in sufficiently small quantities. Specifically: it’s just impossible to buy a small enough portion of the tea-bags and milk we need for the seven days. Buying shops’ minimum sizes means we still risk blowing the budget and then have too much stock left over at the end. Our workaround is to estimate how much we actually consume – and calculate a unit price – and take it from normal household stock. For 2019, that’s 1p per teabag – 50p – and 60p’s worth of milk!

Mission Accomplished (almost!)

A further challenge is that it’s hardly a well-balanced diet! Just as well we’re only doing this for seven days! Imagine if this was how you had to eat ALL THE TIME! 🤔

But after a few years of doing this, we just don’t think it’s possible to have three meals a day – for just £1 each – AND ensure it’s all nutritious. I’ll be really very happy to hear from anyone who can suggest how we might make the week ahead more healthy! And before you ask, buying raw fruit and veg and ‘making it all from scratch’, sounds like a smart move, but sadly, it just doesn’t work.

UPDATE: Friday, 6th. David picked up all the bits we couldn’t get on Thursday, so now we have all (or pretty much all) we need for 2019’s challenge – and what’s more, in the end, we didn’t quite spend the whole £21 – just £18.18.

Under nourished but under budget by £2.72!

So, here is our meal schedule for the next seven days…

This will NOT win ‘Nutritious Meal of the Year Award’! (click for a larger version)

Wish us luck! 🤐 Next stop: ‘Day 1 Breakfast’ in about an hour. Yummy!!! 🙄

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